I turned off email notifications a while back, mostly because my two year old may have deleted some emails while playing a game.... but anyway I had no idea how annoying those email notifications were, after I turned off email notifications it was such a new and nice experience.

I had been very careful about email notifications unsubscribing and avoiding giving out my email address so it hadn't been a problem .... then I was laid off and decided to change careers and my email just exploded (sadly not with job offers yet). Turning off email notifications was really stress relieving.

I think the “unread” counter still creates that somewhat intrusive and addicting feeling. If I post on HN I don’t really sit here refreshing to see if anyone replied. I just kind of come back at the end of my day and see what happened. It also takes a few more clicks to get to comments, threads, etc., especially for older posts and comments so it adds a barrier to that instant dopamine rush.

When I previously used Reddit it felt like I would just sit there refreshing all day waiting until that envelope turned orange...

Please no. Notifications are just there to increase the addictive factor for social media. HN doesn't need to increase MAU or time on site. There's no need for rapid response or a response at all usually. If you feel the need to navel gaze you can easily view the replies through your profile page. This is the last site on the internet that's not trying to hack my brain.

Without this all conversations also die as soon as they are off the front page. I read HN through RSS at my leisure, so I come in late. It's generally already too late for me to participate, since no one know I have replied to them or made a comment.

These are amazing conversations! let's give them a chance / choice. to live on more in time

I don’t check for replies often. So I don’t miss not being notified of any either. As others have pointed out, it could make one’s time management, distraction management and stress levels worse.

I’d actually request for a better UI to navigate threaded comments instead. I personally can’t handle multiple levels of replies on HN like many others seem to be doing here. The interface is terrible to figure out who’s replying to what when one reads several comments, comment replies and scrolls down. Add to that the almost microscopic buttons and links to vote and collapse. These are good features to keep me from going deeper into the rabbit hole.